The public pursuit of closure: losses, fictions, and endings

Abstract

Purpose This paper raises the possibility that closure is a myth, both in the sense of a narrative guiding a quest and in the sense of a social fiction. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach The paper examines parts played by public administration practice in quests with subtexts of death, love, and loss, and suggests that overlapping administrative and narrative fictions have their comforts and uses for grieving persons, for organizations, and for the social order. Findings The paper confesses ambivalence about the actual existence of closure in historical rather than fictional time. Originality/value Using the metaphor of “closing the books,” the paper situates particular public reckonings with human loss in the context of justice-seeking and other public sector companions of “closure,” but resists the narrative closure of the authoritative answer and the happy ending.